"We have to be the superpower, we have to be above you, and you have to be subdued," [Zacarias] Moussaoui said. "You organize the misery of the world."

Shermy's Compendium of Conundrums*

...strange world...unanswered questions...here's some head thumpers...

MYSTERIOUS ALAN GREENSPAN

Greenspan called the banking and housing chaos a "once-in-a-century credit tsunami" that led to a breakdown in how the free market system functions.

Accused of contributing to the meltdown, but denying that it was his fault, Greenspan told a House panel the crisis left him  an unabashed free-market advocate  in a "state of shocked disbelief."

The longtime Fed chief acknowledged under questioning that he had made a "mistake" in believing that banks in operating in their self-interest would be sufficient to protect their shareholders and the equity in their institutions. Greenspan called it "a flaw in the model that I perceived is the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works."

Greenspan told the House Oversight Committee he was wrong in believing that banks would be more prudent in their lending practices because of the need to protect their stockholders.

But he went on to assign the blame on soaring mortgage foreclosures on overeager investors who did not properly take into account the threats that would be posed once home prices stopped surging upward.

He said what had been "a critical pillar to market competition and free markets did break down. And I think that, as I said, shocked me. I still do not fully understand why it happened."

For several years I have seen posters condemn Greenspan, and I have grown to understand why. Greenspan is not an evil actor, but a complete moron. Part of the libertarian cult of the CEO, this story highlights their delusion about "markets" that are "free." Greenspan will blame himself before he lets into his economic imagination the fact that market actors include the CEO's, executives, traders, etc. and have their own profit-maximizing motivations. These are not agents of market "distortion" but primary players in financial markets, players who essentially invent money, but whom Greenspan types think should be the least regulated in our economy.

The current problems came up because of risky behavior by private industry under an implied promise that the government would bail them out. It was brought on by risky behavior where government made a promise to private individuals who went out and made themselves very, very rich by risky practices that have put our economy at risk.

Karl sure has a way of speaking with clarity. But shouldn't the financial news media be all over this statement? When and who in government made these promises that negated risk? How were these promises made? Why should the public pay for higher prices in oil, food and other commodities because of a "implied" promise. If the promise was only "implied" how come we have to bear the burden, not the "very, very rich." Did Bush or Clinton promise foreign governments that American derivatives like securitized mortgage instruments would be backed by the Fed?

MYSTERIOUS JOHN KERRY

[Under Deconstruction. Old News.]

MYSTERIOUS BARACK OBAMA

[too much to report]

THE MYSTERY OF THE AMI J.LO. LETTERS

[Removed. Case solved. It was Ivins because the FBI says so. So there.]

(VERY) MYSTERIOUS OKC

The famous "Secret Service Memo"

"...A witness to the explosion named Grossman claimed to have seen a pale yellow Mercury car with a Ryder truck behind it pulling up to the Federal Building. Mr. Grossman further claimed to have seen a woman on the corner waving to the truck. ATSAIC McNally noted that this fact is significant due to the fact that the security video shows the Ryder truck pulling up to the Federal Building and then pausing (7-10 seconds) before resuming into a slot in front of the building. It is speculated that the woman was signalling the truck when a slot became available...."

"The main thing Joann Van Buren says she remembers about Timothy McVeigh is the $50 bill he wanted her to break. That, and the two men who accompanied him.

One day before he tore a hole in the nation's psyche with the bomb that destroyed Oklahoma City's Murrah Federal Building, McVeigh, Van Buren says, pulled up to the little Subway sandwich shop where she worked in Junction City, Kansas, driving the yellow Ryder truck that would contain the bomb.

Van Buren didn't pay any particular attention to them at first. Another clerk waited on the men, but when they tried to pay for their meal with a large bill, she took notice.

"As soon as the $50 bill came up, I had to go to the safe to get the change," says Van Buren today. "And when I gave them the change and they got their sandwiches, I remember them going back over to the corner, sitting down. And when they left, I remember three people getting into the truck. There were three people at the table."

The clerks she worked with later told FBI agents that two of the men matched the descriptions of McVeigh and his cohort, Terry Nichols. The third was a shorter, dark-haired and muscular man with an olive complexion: a perfect fit for the figure destined to be known as John Doe 2.

Luckily, the Subway shop actually had a video camera recording that day's events. When Van Buren contacted the FBI, agents interviewed everyone working in the shop on April 18. And when they were done, they confiscated the video recorded that day.

But if that tape showed a third co-conspirator with McVeigh and Nichols, no one outside the FBI can say. No one beyond the agency ever saw it. In the waning days of Nichols' trial, his defense attorneys discovered the details of Van Buren's story -- which had only been described in generic terms in the FBI's report, omitting her contention that two men accompanied McVeigh -- along with information contained in some 43,000 other "lead sheets" that the FBI until then had failed to turn over to them. ...

Where's the tape? (Not mentioned at the Nichols trial - his lawyers, naturally, not interested in tapes that would implicate Nichols.